DAN, a town of ancient Judea, near the head-waters of the Jordan, inhabited at the time of the Israelitish conquest by a peaceful and commercial population whose name for their city was Laish, or Leshem. It appears to have been even at this early period a sacred city, and hence it was naturally chosen long after by Jeroboam as the seat of one of his golden calves. The Jewish name, which it derived from the tribe to whose lot it fell, became proverbial in the expression “from Dan to Beersheba.” The town was plundered by Benhadad of Damascus, and appears from that time to have gradually declined. Its site is probably marked by the mound called Tell-el-Kady, “the hill of the judge,” or “the hill of Dan.”

the fifth son of Jacob, Gen. xxx, 1–6. Dan had but one son, whose name was Hushim, Gen. xlvi, 23; yet he had a numerous posterity; for, on leaving Egypt, this tribe consisted of sixty-two thousand seven hundred men able to bear arms, Num. i, 38. Of Jacob’s blessing Dan, see Gen. xlix, 16, 17. They took Laish, Judges xviii, 1; Joshua xix, 47. They called the city Dan, after their progenitor. The city of Dan was situated at the northern extremity of the land of Israel: hence the phrase, “from Dan to Beersheba,” denoting the whole length of the land of promise. Here Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, set up one of his golden calves, 1 Kings xii, 29; and the other at Bethel.

DANA, the name of an American family of which several members have attained eminence. Richard Dana (1699-1772) was a leading barrister of Boston, and a prominent opponent of the Stamp Act. His son, Francis Dana, born in Charlestown in 1743, also began life as a barrister. In 1774 he was chosen to represent Cambridge in the first provincial congress of Massachusetts; and in the following year he visited England, bearing letters to Dr Franklin from several of the patriot leaders. From 1776 to 1780 he was a member* of the Massachusetts council; and in 1777 and 1778 he represented Massachusetts in the National Congress. He was also one of the committee appointed tn administer military affairs, In 1779 he was appointed secretary of legation to John Adams, the ambassador to England; and for two years (1781-83) he was envoy to St Petersburg. He took an active part in politics till 1791, when, being appointed chief-justice of Massachusetts, he devoted himself to his judicial duties. He died at Cambridge, April 25,1811. Francis Dana was the father of Richard Henry Dana, born in 1787, the author of The Buccaneer and other Poems, and a number of essays, many of which first appeared in the North American Review, of which Dana was one of the founders. His son, also named Richard Henry Dana, is an authority on maritime law, and the author of the popular novel Two Years before the Mast, which is founded on personal experience, and of The Seaman’s Friend, or The Seaman’s Manual.

DANAE, in Greek legend, is known only in connection with her son Perseus (Iliad, xiv. 319), and in particular from the circumstances of his birth. Her father Acrisius, king of Argos, having been warned by an oracle that his daughter would bear a son who would put him to death and rule in his stead, sought to prevent this by confiping Danae in an underground chamber lined with bronze like the underground treasuries still visible at Mycenae. But Zeus descended to her in a shower of gold, and she gave birth to Perseus, upon which Acrisius placed her and her infant in a wooden box and consigned them to the sea. After long floating about they were picked up by Dictys, a fisherman who lived with his brother Polydectes on the small island of Seriphus. There she remained till her son had grown up and returned from his expedition of cutting off Medusa’s head, when, finding his mother persecuted by Polydectes, Perseus first turned her tormentor and those with him into stone by exhibiting Medusa’s head, and then set out with her for Argos. From this point she has no more part in the Greek legend. In Latin legend she goes to Italy and marries Pilumnus or Picumnus. It has been pointed out that Perseus was a solar hero, and his birth in the dark chamber has been compared with the birth of Apollo from Leto, a goddess of the darkness of night. The wooden box in which mother and son floated safely is also compared with the boat of Helios, and the golden rain of Zeus may be the beams of sunlight.

DANAUS, in Greek legend, was the founder of Argos and of the race of Danai, by which name the Argives are designated in Homer. A local feature of Argos was the drought which in summer sealed its numerous small springs, and with this feature Danaus was identified as having made the first well, while his fifty daughters (Danaides), seem to represent the many springs of the district. In the lower world they had to carry water in broken vases. It was in searching for water that his daughter Amymone was pursued by a satyr and rescued by Poseidon, the god of that element, who struck out a spring for her with his trident. But while the legend of Danaus thus seems to have been of native Argive origin, he was, in accordance with the tendency at one time of tracing genealogies to Egypt, described as a son of Belus, king of Egypt, and Anchirrhoe, a daughter of the Nile, having a brother jEgyptus. This brother had fifty sons, while Danaus had fifty daughters, and because the latter would not marry their cousins, they were obliged to escape from Egypt with their father Danaus. The sons of JEgyptus pursued them to Argos and besieged them there, till it was agreed by Danaus that they should marry his daughters. But to each of his daughters he gave a knife with injunctions to slay her husband on the marriage night. Except Hypermnestra they all obeyed, and it was for this that they had to carry water in the lower world. Afterwards he gave them in marriage to the noblest youths of the district who could prove their claims by the greatest speed in the race course.

DANBURY, a town of the United States, in Fairfield county, Connecticut, situated on the Still river, a tributary of the Housatonic, about 53 miles N.N.E. of New York, with which it is connected by rail. Besides the county buildings, it has two national banks, nine churches, a public library, and a high school capable of accommodating 600 pupils. There is a monument, erected in 1854 to the memory of General Wooster, who was mortally wounded in 1777, when the town was burned by the English under General Tryon, and another, of more recent date, to commemorate the other citizens who perished on the same occasion. The principal industry is the manufacture of hats, which was introduced in 1780, and is carried on by ten separate companies; shirts are also largely produced, and sewing machines are constructed. The town, which was incorporated in 1696, had in 1870 a population of 8753, Its Indian name was Pahquioque.

DANBY, Francis (1793-1861), a painter of poetical landscape, who possesses some significance and importance in the English school, was born in the south of Ireland, November 16, 1793. His father farmed a small property he owned near Wexford, and Francis began life in the country, but the death of his father caused the family to remove to Dublin, while he was still a schoolboy, and there his bias to art very quickly developed itself, and superseded any other education. He began to practise drawing at the Royal Dublin Society’s schools; and under a Mr O’Connor, an erratic youth of his own age with national peculiarities, he began painting landscape. The capital of Ireland has never shown very much interest in the arts, but there was a youth then rising who afterwards made his mark in archaeology, if not in his profession of landscape painting, George Petrie, with whom Danby formed an acquaintance; and all three left for London together in 1813. This expedition, undertaken with very inadequate funds, and no aid, quickly came to an end and they had to get home again by walking all the way. At Bristol they made a pause, and Danby finding he could get trifling sums for water-colour drawings, remained there working diligently and sending to the London exhibitions pictures of importance. There his large pictures in oil quickly attracted attention. They were very powerful in effect and imaginative in invention; and, had his Upas Tree and the Delivery of the Israelites from Egypt been produced before a greater man, John Martin, had shown the way to express multitude, vastness, and fabulous wonders in architecture, Danby would be properly considered one of the great men in modern painting. The Upas Tree (1820), his most independent and original picture, is, however, a very ...

DANCE. The term dancing in its widest sense includes three things :—(1) the spontaneous activity of the muscles under the influence of some strong emotion, such as social joy or religious exultation; (2) definite combinations of graceful movements performed for the sake of the pleasure which the exercise affords to the dancer or to the spectator; (3) carefully trained movements which are meant by the dancer vividly to represent the actions and passions of other people. In the highest sense it seems to be for prose-gesture what song is for the instinctive exclamations of feeling. Pantomime in the emphatic form of dancing scarcely exists in this century, but it has had an important history. Regarded as the outlet or expression of strong feeling, dancing does not require much discussion, for the general rule applies that such demonstrations for a time at least sustain and do not exhaust the flow of feeling. The voice and the facial muscles and many of the organs are affected at the same time, and the result is a high state of vitality which among the spinning Dervishes or in the ecstatic worship of Bacchus and Cybele amounted to something like madness. Even here there is traceable an undulatory movement which, as Mr Spencer says, is “habitually generated by feeling in its bodily discharge.” But it is only in the advanced or volitional stage of dancing that we find developed the essential feature of measure, which has been said to consist in “the alternation of stronger muscular contractions with weaker ones,” an alternation which, except in the cases of savages and children, “is compounded with longer rises and falls in the degree of muscular excitement.” In analyzing the state of mind which this measured dancing produces, we must first of all allow for the ...

It is still the custom in the east to testify their respect for persons of distinction by music and dancing. When Baron Du Tott, who was sent by the French government to inspect their factories in the Levant, approached an encampment of Turcomans, between Aleppo and Alexandretta, the musicians of the different hordes turned out, playing and dancing before him all the time he and his escort were passing by their camp. Thus, it will be recollected, “the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music,” when he returned in triumph from the slaughter of the Philistines. In the oriental dances, in which the women engage by themselves, the lady of highest rank in the company takes the lead, and is followed by her companions, who imitate her steps, and if she sings, make up the chorus. The tunes are extremely gay and lively, yet with something in them wonderfully soft. The steps are varied according to the pleasure of her who leads the dance, but always in exact time. This statement may enable us to form a correct idea of the dance, which the women of Israel performed under the direction of Miriam, on the banks of the Red Sea. The prophetess, we are told, “took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and dances.” She led the dance, while they imitated her steps, which were not conducted according to a set, well-known form, as in this country, but extemporaneous. The conjecture of Mr. Harmer is extremely probable, that David did not dance alone before the Lord, when he brought up the ark, but, as being the highest in rank, and more skilful than any of the people, he led the religious dance of the males.

DANCOURT, Florent Carton (1661-1725), French dramatist and actor, was born at Fontainebleau on the 1st November 1661. He belonged to a family of rank, and his parents intrusted his education to Father De la Rue, a Jesuit, who made earnest but fruitless efforts to induce him to join the order. Preserving his freedom he studied law, became an advocate, and engaged for a short time in the practice of his profession. His marriage to the daughter of the celebrated comedian La Thorilli&re led him to adopt the career of an actor, and in 1685, in spite of the strong opposition of his family, he appeared on the stage of the Theatre Frangais. His power of facial expression, vivacity of manner, and fluency of utterance gave him immediate and marked success, both with the public and with his fellow actors. The latter chose him for their spokesman on occasions of state, and in this capacity he frequently appeared before Louis XIV., who treated him with great favour. As a dramatic author Dancourt was exceedingly prolific, and as an almost necessary consequence somewhat unequal. His first play, Le Notaire obligeant, produced in 1685, was so well received as to lead its author speedily to repeat the experiment. La Desolation des Jouenses (1686) was still more successful; and Le Chevalier d la Mode (1687) is generally regarded as his best work, though his claim to original authorship in this and some other cases has been disputed. These were followed by others in constant succession till 1718, when he terminated his career both as an actor and as an author. Retiring to a chateau at Courcelles le Roi, in Berry, he employed himself in making a poetical translation of the psalms and in writing a sacred tragedy. He died on the 6th December 1725, and was buried in a tomb he had caused to be ...